Король бойцов (2010) Online

If you are a Kof player, do not watch this.

If you are into action/fighting movie, do not watch this.

If you love watching good movie, Do Not Watch This.

I really have no idea why they made such a movie?

Was Dragonball no bad enough?? Have they no learn the mistake??

What is the director or the screen writer thinking?? Iori Yagami looks like a playboy?? Kyo is American Spanish?? (can't really tell what nationality he is, but he sure is not the Kyo we are expecting), maggie Q as Mai? And who is that guy using the 2 sticks? Rugal?? not Mr.Big??? No to mention the other characters, i am really speechless.

This is not X-Men, or Spider Man, or one of those American superhero story, which was successfully turned into movie.

This Is Kof. You simply just can not find a bunch of people, film some really bad fighting scenes, slap a movie together and call it Kof.

Sorry about the complain, but I had to hold my anger for 1 and half hour, just so i can see it to the end, and be sure how hopeless this movie is before i made this post.

I wanted to give this a 0 star rating, but the lowest is 1 so yeah.

It's bad.

There are stronger words starting with "F" that can be substituted for "Fighters" in the title "King of Fighters". A pity "profanities, obscenities and spiteful remarks" are not allowed in reviews. But here is a clue: the "F" word is definitely an insult, just as how Hong Kong Director Gordan Chan's "The King of Fighters" is an insult. Not just an insult to the fans of the King of Fighters (affectionately abbreviated to "KOF") video game series, or video games in general, but it even manages to be an insult to bad video game movies.

On a whole, the setting of the story manages to immediately rip-off "The Matrix" while sounding more confusing than the entire trilogy combined. THe premise of this movie shows A secret tournament that is held in some alternate dimension in which fighters from around the world "log in" to via special earpieces. Think jacking into a big matrix-like video game world, complete with "I-know-kung-fu" wire fighting and badly CGI-ed special powers. Its all fun and games until Rugal (Ray Park doing his best Darth Maul meets The Joker impression) steals some sacred artifacts with a plot to free something called "The Orochi". Why free the orochi? Because Rugal wants to haxors the alternate dimensional video game, become "L33T" and ultimately the god-mode hax winner. Out to stop him are undercover agents Mai, who is working for Terry Bogard in the CIA, and Iori Yagami, a man with a past connection to Rugal. Together they must seek out a third artifact called the "Kusanagi sword" which has been passed from father to son to one Kyo Kusanagi.

To quote Maggie Q's character of Mai by saying "Its not Logical", would be a major understatement. An illogical, confusing and plodding plot is the least of this movie's problems. In trying to mix mysticism with hardcore science fiction would have worked in the hands of a skilled creative team. Here it turned out like oil and water, making the entire movie very difficult to follow and bordering on absurd.

The most basic criteria for a just "passable" video game movie is that either the story has small resemblance to the game (Silent Hill, Max Payne, Hit-man) or the character has some similar appearance to their game counterparts (Mortal Kombat, Tekken). King of Failures has NONE of these mere basic elements! Fine, Resident Evil had neither too, but at least it had a story that was mildly entertaining. King of Failures is an absolute chore to sit through.

The pacing is thrown off by having too much talk and not enough fight. All the talk is not even interesting nor does it develop that silly excuse for a plot. Kyo's so called "hero's journey" has been done in umpteen other shows and every character's lack of charisma is made even more painful by stilted acting and laughable dialogue. At least Ray Park's Rugal was funny in all his weird costumes when he changes the setting of the game to, for example, a hockey match.

When some action does come once in a while, it is an utter let down and a complete joke especially when one knows what kind of awesome action Hong Kong is capable of. The fight choreography is generally uninspired, almost dull. Many B movies have had better fights than this; heck even Legend of Chun Li had some better fight choreography. Ray Park and Will Yun Lee were the only two actors who had some convincing fighting moves (thanks perhaps to their martial arts training). Speaking of "Legend of chun Li", remember that lesbian tease scene? Well King of Failures has its own lesbian tease scene. But the biggest sin here is Gordan Chan's wonky camera-work which uses way too many "dutch angles"(oblique or slanted tilting of the camera while filming) and an irritating purple lighting that seems reminiscent of "Battlefield Earth".

NINE companies collaborated on this project (count it in the "company credits" section) and all they managed to cough up was a 12 million dollar budget for this piece of junk?? How could Gordon Chan, renown director of great films like "Painted Skin" and "Fist of Legend" sink so low? (It pains me personally to see the name of a Singaporean company listed among the production credits). It is as if there is some perverse secret global competition for "crappiest video game movie creators of the century": Hollywood has entered Hyde Park Entertainment and Andrzej Bartkowiak, Germany has Boll K. G. and Uwe Boll, France has Xavier Gens, . And now, CONGRATULATIONS to Asia who has officially added Gordon Chan and all 9 of those production companies (who are mostly also Asian) to vie for the "crappiest video game movie creator" title.

Seriously,what the heck those Hollywood guys think?

I mean this story is based on the game that involved ancient japan folklore with obviously with Asian characters as the central story so anyone can tell KYO KUSANAGI is a Japanese,and i can't even see a bit of oriental in Kyo,not to be racist but ,now Sean Farris as Kyo??no offense man but you're not even close,grow some hairy face and cast yourself as Ralf--The most acceptable character for this movie storyline but unfortunately left out--and leave Kyo's casting to any young Asian movie star.

Not just this movie,look at DoA,Tekken,and Dragon Ball,as a fan of those games & anime title it truly hurts me to see kazuya not played by an Asian,hell even goku changed stayed as a super saiyant all the time in the movie version??

And finally : Maggie Q as Mai Shiranui,google for Mai Shiranui and you'll see there's no physical resemblance apart from the long hair and slim legs.

Definitely this is one of the most horrible adaption movie.

I gave this a 3 out of 10 just in respect for efforts to make a film and when the color's adjusted the picture's visually pleasing in HD. An advice if you are going to watch it, increase the contrast and turn down the brightness then it will look great on an HD TV.

If you are a King of Fighter fan and you follow its story then it is best not to watch it. If you are looking for character reasonableness, don't watch it. 10% of the movie is based on the game, the rest a high budget softcore, action, soap opera hybrid.

Plot basics: Jabra Bluetooth headset transports fighters to a tournament in another dimension. Hot chick fighter gets fall into a love triangle. Martial arts demonstration with some CGI.

Film makers please stop abusing video game titles just to attract more viewers.

It actually pains me a little to write this review, this was such a fantastic series to play and yet they have managed to take every single plot that has ever existed and obliterate them all. Instead making some kind of demented plot that makes no sense at all and has nothing what so ever to do with either the games or the animation series.

The characters for this series are not only unrealistic but entirely wrong, for example anyone who's ever seen any of the Fatal Fury series knows that Terry Bogard is just a laid back guy and has nothing to do nor ever has with any kind of government, not to mention a bad ass fighter, yet in this "movie" he magically became C.I.A and a wimp all in 1 shot. As Far as the plots concerned here are the fine points, evil guy gets into fighter dimension, tries to take fighters out in that dimension, fails(much like this movie), The End. Sound Terrible? THATS BECAUSE IT IS!!!! 1/10 god help us all if this is the crap we have to endure from the movie industry.

I've been watching video game adaptations ever since I was little and pretty much have a realistic sense of what to expect in movies like these, i.e., they tend to be less than stellar and deviate severely from the source material. I saw King of Fighters after I saw Tekken, so the latter became my point of comparison and, therefore, wasn't expecting much from the KOF movie. However,KOF just epically sucked.

Based on the credits, there seemed to be so many people involved in this movie and I can't understand how, with all these people, they couldn't come up with a decent movie. The movie had a pretty good A list cast that are all mostly well-experienced and well-respected in the action movie industry, but they all deliver their career worsts in this one movie.

The story was idiotic and the script was pointless. The movie runs at a snail's pace and all the action scenes were bland, at best, because just when you think that it's going to be better, it just disappoints.

I'm usually very forgiving of movies and understanding of their flaws, but this movie was an epic fail. Maggie Q, Will Yun Lee, Ray Park, and Sean Farris should all be ashamed. It looked like they just did this movie to pay the bills. This is a great example of what not to do in a movie, not just for video game adaptations. They'd have been better off making a porno.

Hand on heart, then I am not a fan of movies based on fighting games, but this one topples all the rest. It pretty much sums up the definition of bad movies.

"The King of Fighters" suffers horribly from an very weak and basically non-existent storyline. And whatever little was there just didn't work. Come on, putting in an ear piece and then press a button and you go to an alternate dimension to fight? Yeah, that was perhaps the most epic fail of the entire movie.

Also, the movie suffered from a lack of acting talents. Surely there were some scenes that were alright, but in general the acting performances in this movie was painful to behold. And also the actors/actresses didn't really have much of a solid dialogue script to work with. And also the characters portrayed in the movie never grasped you, they were shallow and had no personalities, so it was hard to relate to any of them or get any kind of emotion for any of them.

Now, what did work for the movie, was the CGI effects. They were actually adequate enough to look at. I especially liked the regular flame and blue flame effects, they looked cool.

Some of the fighting scenes were good enough to look at, and had just the right amount of speed and action. But most of them actually were strenuous to the eyes and came off as half-hearted, forced attempts of making a fight scene.

I wonder what made Maggie Q agree to participate in a movie like this. Usually her movies are somewhat further up the ladder compared to this movie. If for no other reason, at least her appearance is a treat for the eyes.

There are way too many movie versions of fighting games out there, and 99% of them doesn't translate well to a movie screen. And "The King of Fighters" is one of them. I actually fell asleep and was out for 20 minutes during this movie, it was just that boring. I am sure that the director had the best of intentions at heart, but there is no need to make a movie out of a fighting game that has long gone out of date.

If you are into action movies and movies based on fighting games, "The King of Fighters" should be avoided, you are better off watching something like "Mortal Kombat" instead. This movie is not really worth the effort.

I wasted an hour and a half on this (well more like an hour, as I was out for 20 minutes or so), and this is definitely not a movie that I will be returning to ever again.

Please don't waste your time watching this movie!! Its horrific to see how low budget movie production houses and poor unprofessional directors try to make a movie from a franchise and twist the original characters and story and fan support into a pathetic show of a movie which is nothing but a complete joke.

I mean I was speechless once I was able to finish this movie after keeping myself in the chair in hope that the director would come up with something better. But Alas, it was the same joke again n again.

You could tell at every step of the movie that its a low budget movie with directions so horrible that the actors are stiff, dialogues not in place, the tiny bit of special effects being forwarded to make it faster. Like for gods sake, you couldn't make the Orochi ball into a little bit better display??? If you can't make a good movie, then please don't screw up the original story board and the KOF name.

Anyone with the slightest taste in movies should stay a million miles away from this movie. The whole production house and director should be ashamed of what they have done. Me, a proud fan of KOF, disgusted beyond saying to see this movie.

I don't get on this website as often as I want to, because quite frankly I don't have the time to visit this place and post reviews of movies I think are lame and should be doomed to the shelf for all eternity in video hell. However, as a fan of fighting video games as a whole I simply came to this one because I had to; to not review this movie after trying to survive a three-part Orochi saga and flamboyant french man named after the dude from Evil Dead, would be a crime against humanity. So, after probably what seemed like a year or two since my last review, I figured it was time to suck in the gut and get the ball rolling on a little critique on this movie based on SNK's 'King of Fighters' series.

For those who think this is an original movie based on an original idea, reconsider that thought: it isn't. Your stereotypical band of misfits follow a kooky weirdo hooked on Japanese mythology decide to jack into a video game system to engage in a battle of epic wits, heart and soul, gaining EXP with extreme PVP to kick a very thin man's butt in a virtual reality world. If anything else I could have sworn this movie might have been the 'Lost Matrix Sequel' that time forgot, or maybe just an extended trailer for Matrix Online that had been recut, dismantled, reassembled and put together for the viewing audience. No, this was a movie that had my favorite game's title in it, had some folks loosely based on characters I've grown to admire in terms of actual gameplay, and some of the weirdest action I've ever seen.

First off let me ask you, how difficult is it to really make a movie out of this? The original game was simple an open invitation by a mysterious hostee and his mistresses, to find the best fighters in the world. The catch was that this wasn't going to be your atypical one-on-one, you now had two partners to join you. You had your choice of various known-names, ranging from street fighters to karate nuts to goofballs and some military men. Unlike Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, they're not just doing one-dude-against-the-masses, no, it's teams of three. People with distinct personalities clashing with others and lifestyles.

That my friends should be more than enough to use for the basis of this movie. Had I done it, I would have taken four teams from the original list and modified them as such: a kooky team of so-called karate experts in a rugged part of L.A trying to make a living., mixed in with some homebrew fighters from the mean streets of Chicago, renowned and respected professional brawlers who travel the world, and then maybe add some retired Rambo/Ah-nulled/John McClane ruffians from the US Army going in to seize the event. Make Rugal simply a one-man army go out and kick all of their asses until the final moment, and that would have been it. Maybe toss in some villainous gangsters or something to make up for Geese Howard or Kain R. Heinlein in the mix.

However this is simple a combination of things we have all seen before, if not in a good long while. A suspicious looking thin-man who hardly looks like the game boss and two scantily clad fetishists fighting a CIA agent, some Japanese dork, another scantily-clad woman, as they look around for a sword.

C'mon people, where is the life to these characters? Terry Bogard was a homeless dude (a clean-shaven one and well-taken care of one, at that), not a CIA agent. If people want undercover agents, that's what shows like 24 or even the Legend of Chun-Li movie is all about (I question the casting for Charlie/Nash). They're all models of repeats.

The story is a borefest. I would have simply preferred something the lines of a straightforward fighting movie: no plot other than the conflicts and tough times fueled by different fighters who don't get along or don't like each other. Here, we're just looking at the same movie of years past with a different title and 'A PLOT TWIST!' If anything else, this is a movie that's more of a rental.

Strangely, I've been following this movie for some time now and I didn't even know it was released until right -now-... I wonder if they were intending to do that for sake of not getting something like my Secret of NIMH II review, under the guise of MR. KARATE. But alas.

KOF it has a history in the video game world for a long time and for people who know the game, played the game this movie is completely disappointing. Seriously, I don't understand how someone can make a movie about something they have no idea about, do some research people, you are playing with fans of this game that go watch your movie expecting the minimum from you like that you know the plot of the video game, that you know what the game is about, that you show us some decent fighting and that you show us some of the cool moves of the game, really is that asking too much? I have to say that this movie is the worst movie I had seen of a video game and I am also including Street Fighter 1994, really dudes does any one watches the movie before throwing it on the cinemas? How can any one allow this movie to go the cinema? Amazing!!

There are some movies that if you are fan of what is about to be told in that movie, you can say "errr.. It's a bad movie i know but what can i do? i love this cartoon/anime/video game etc."

i have been playing KoF games more than 11 years but i have never imagined that a movie about this game would be so painful to me. It was total agony. All the characters obviously have been killed by the script writers. Cast is dead. There is a soundtrack in the movie but believe me, if the movie would be a movie without soundtrack no one would argue that.

Everything was 'so' awful in this movie that i couldn't believe this movie took rating more than 2.

Total mediocre. Pain. Agony. Disaster. Catastrophic.

0/10

The King of Fighters is a recent adaptation based on a fighting video game. The previous one is Tekken. I believe this is only released in Singapore. I prefer Tekken to this. Actually, this isn't so bad, it is just...average? Again, I am not a video game fan but by seeing the comparison chart between the video game's characters and movie characters, this fails. And the thing is the acting isn't that good, even Maggie Q's is sort of sloppy. Still, the acting is better than Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li but that is not saying much. The only thing good is the fighting scenes with some CGI added.

The story: Nothing much actually...it is actually boring if not for the fight scenes. The story is straight forward, the good guys want to catch/kill the one and only bad guy. I can clearly see that this has a small budget and I think this will be released straight to DVD in other countries. The acting is disappointing. Maggie Q is also not doing her best acting. Ray Park, well, acts like a generic bad guy. Evil eyes and laughing evilly. The fight scenes are okay, the CGI is okay for a movie with a small budget. The music is over-the-top and generic. I feel that the music does not even match some scenes and is just there for the sake of being there. When they talk, there is techno music...just plain weird.

Overall: It is just mediocre. It is nothing special. It is just disappointing too. I believe it can be improved in ways. Gordon Chan's directing is also disappointing. This is a movie that if you miss it in cinema, you won't miss much. Except for the cool fight scenes with CGI and Maggie Q, there is nothing much this movie can offer.

this movie is so bad, just like any other movie made by Hollywood based from best selling game, anime, etc it's sucks.

it's humiliating the original king of fighter story and character. weak story, wrong placement for the character, ooh it's to much bad things to said about this movie.

how can the director put old people to play the character, Mai Shiranui, Iori Yagami, their suppose to be in their 20's not their 35th.

Kyo Kusanagi doesn't pronounced as Kiyo Kusanagi and he's the inherit of Kusanagi Klan, instead he looks like a member of power rangers,

Rugal Bernstein seems to have an eating disorder he supposed to be has a body like Dolph Lundgren, not Rob Schneider.

next time just let the Japanese handling this type of movie instead.. Hollywood this is not something you can handle with so get lost..

I have just watch the first 30 mins - the part when Ray Park with a hockey mask appear - and just couldn't continue.

How bad this movie is? For my record I manage to complete watching 'alone in the dark' when it is that crap, but for 'KOF', the story is plain, plot is boring, casting is wrong, fight choreography is...what can i say...you can imagine Maggie Q who in real life doesn't have martial art background and is fighting with real martial artist like Ray Park, suddenly her opponent has to give way in their punches to make her look stronger...you know what i mean, this isn't like 2 real martial artists fighting, it's a demo.

They could have just do the film under a different story instead of adaptation from video game.

This is not intended to offend any of the cast, but the director, Gordon Chan

Not the least cute and grumpy Mai? Why didn't you pick Leona if you wanted a grumpy, dark and brooding agent?

Talkative and charming Iori? No, not at all acceptable! I agree that the red hair was not necessary, but I was really expecting his hair to turn red when he was controlled by Orochi.

Half American- half whatever-but-Japanese Kyo? It was the most similar personality (Although he looked like Shingo with short hair)but it lacked swagger.

Skinny Rugal! My god!! You could at least have tried to put a wig on Goldberg!

Marty McFly Terry. What the hell was up with that jacket? You should have given him the leather jacket he had in KOF 2001. A CIA agent? The LONE WOLF? Ha!

Chizuru wasn't that bad, and Mr. Big could have been bald, but he was OK.I LOVED Mature and Vice; excellent, really cute.

The movie itself, sucked. Awful screenplay, photography, dialogs and crappy costumes. Corny, slow, boring, what else do you want me to say? Don't watch it: ever.

I really can't express my frustration about the 1 1/2 hours of my life I wasted watching it.

And Kyo's finishing move! Lame! Why didn't you fuse the sword with his arm and did his Shiki Orochinagi? Using ideas from a story you bought the rights to is not plagiarism! Or the Kusanagi sun mark could have AT LEAST flared up in his forehead! Or his jacket!

NEVER EVER; WHATEVER YOU DO;

D O N O T W A T C H T H I S M O V I E ! ! !

If there's one video game that I suck at big time, it will be The King of Fighters. Already I was struggling back then with mastering all the Street Fighter character moves, then this game came along, where one has to master 3 characters as a group and face them off either with some artificial intelligence (now programmed to be smarter at your neighbourhood video game store), or with another human challenger who finds it easy to cream me with one character in full energy left to spare.

Things have been relatively low key for the film version of the video game, and perhaps rightly so since it's not automatic that films from Japanese video games, manga and animation make that dignified live-action leap onto the silver screen, most falling short in the process – last year's disastrous Dragon Ball Evolution and the lacklustre Street Fighter Legend of Chun Li being very recent examples of the bad aftertaste left at the box office. Audience these days demand a lot more, and the in-built fan base no longer representing a ready market, but a base of high expectations that are difficult to meet even as they are aware some tweaks to characters and story lines are necessary for the change of medium. This Gordon Chan directed effort however, is expected to fall short given the extremely flimsy, cookie cutter storyline that reeks, and for an action film, the cardinal sin of having limited action, almost all of which are left to the last 30 minutes.

Maggie Q marquees this film as Mai Shianui, working undercover for Terry Bogard (David Leitch) of the CIA (I hear yawns already) to hook up with Iori Yagami (Will Yun Lee) who teaches her the background myth of having a necklace and a mirror combined to open a door to another dimension. There's a sword in the picture as well belonging to the Kusanagi clan, but one rumored to be lost, and required by chief villain Rugal Bernstein (Ray Park) in order to reign supreme in the King of Fighters MMORPG since he's stolen the other two items and tweaked the system so that his rules apply in the virtual world and is working to combine all dimensions and realms into one. That's basically it, with the heroes trying to convince the Kusanagi clan heir Kyo (Sean Faris who plays a half-Japanese, that explains his Caucasian looks) to cough out the legendary sword, and stop Rugal from destroying civilization.

What's neat is how Rita Augustine and Matthew Ryan Fischer managed to fuse the fantastical elements of the fights that nods at the Matrix experience, with combatants jacked in through bluetooth-like earpieces in order to fight in the virtual MMORPG dimension complete with superhuman powers from the game, though the fights during the first hour had just a very little glimpse of what the finale would promise. The King of Fighters then is a tournament where combatants rise in the ranks through each victory, though with the compromise now by Rugal, death in the dimension also means death in the real world.

What didn't work, happens to be a lot of things. For starters, we have the usual cardboard characters (OK, so this is based on a video game) with CIA agents, hokey Japanese philosophy talk, and just about every situation, setting and background of the characters being extremely contrived. As mentioned the first hour of the film is talk, talk and more talk on the usual genre themes like responsibility and destiny, Then you have heroes who are reluctant and blur, and how one gets transformed from zero to hero is absolutely baffling based on pep talks from memory. The quest for the Kusunagi sword also happens in the most roundabout fashion just to bloat the film's runtime, and amongst all the characters, Terry Bogard happens to be the most carelessly designed on screen with that out of place jacket and baseball cap (keeping to the game I know), with a really obnoxious, ignorant attitude, and a CIA dimwit a-hole to boot.

The fight sequences happened to be a mixed bag, though Hong Kong influences are very heavy in the way the fisticuffs are designed. Special effects inspired by the game are also limited, which is most unfortunate as the game is famed for the various combo-moves that the characters can execute, which is all but lost in the film version. Even then, whatever effects all seemed to be reserved for the extended battle sequence at the finale for an all-out duke out, and audiences will have to be patient with all the talk for the first hour before things start to get remotely interesting since all the money shots get concentrated toward the end.

Naturally movies of this nature will have an ending primed for sequels to continue where it left off especially when the box office response is positive, but my money's on the "Nay" list. If I have to compare, then this is ahead of Dragonball and The Legend of Chun Li, but only just.

The King of Fighters is based from a video game of the same name. As far as adaptations go, this film is a lousy one. It is mediocre, lame & cheesy. Except for the CGI who gave this film a little bit of oomph, the other aspects fall flat.

Fans of the game would be very disappointed with this film, as they have expected more than this. The casting is poor, Ms. Maggie Q included. The acting was unbelievable, and lacks any impression.

I expected more from this film, and it is very disappointed to have to watch this mediocre film for the hour and a half I spent which was a waste of time.

THE KING OF FIGHTERS – TRASH IT ( C ) What a joke it was? I actually knew that it's going to be a trash from the promos but I love Sean Faris, so I just wanted to see him. After Never Back Down, he hasn't got major breakthrough neither on Movies nor even on T.V. He is stunning and gorgeous as hell. The movie's story is immature and the graphics are worst than games. The fighting sequences were immaturely directed though the end fight was watchable. The movie's is budget is around $12 Millions, which is seriously hard to believe because there was no production value at all. Sean Faris and Maggie Q were the only good things in the movie. They made me go through all the whole movie with all the hideousness was going on in it. Will Yun Lee did a good job and all other supporting actors were okay. Overall trash it and don't waste any money on it, even if you love Sean Faris, just watch "Never Back Down" Again and if you love Maggie Q, tune in to "Nikita" every week on CW, its freaking Awesome.

The King of Fighters tournament is one in which participating members are transported to an alternate dimension to engage in a fight. This is made possible due to three ancient artifacts that allow this dimension to exist. The members come under threat when Rugal (Ray Park), a previous member of the tournament, steals the artifacts and begins to manipulate the other dimension to his own liking so as to kill anyone who enters it. It is left to Mai (Maggie Q) and Iori (Will Yun Lee) must enlist the help of Kyo (Sean Farris) to defeat Rugal before too many lives are lost.

The film adaptation of The King of Fighters loosely follows that of the original King of Fighters '94, with some elements from '95, in which Rugal starts the tournament so as to get some excitement into his life. The most notable difference in the adaptation is that the tournament is already established and also that the fighters need to be in an alternate dimension in order to fight in a way which resemble the original game. The science fiction-esquire twist on the narrative makes for an intriguing story but the films never really explores the concept. The story is fashioned in a linear manner, with the odd reference to past sequences to help explain certain information. Unfortunately, the plot is fairly thin: it presents opportunities for further development but these avenues are never fully explored.

The acting quality is not exactly great but this is somewhat understandable considering the cast. That said, no actor ever falls prey to evidently poor acting and with more depth to the script a better acting prowess could have been shown. Actors generally take their roles seriously: Park seems to enjoy the eccentric nature of being a villain while the likes of Maggie Q, Lee and Faris portray the motives of their respective characters adequately enough.

The overall filming quality suggests that the film-makers had a low budget to work with. The King of Fighters appears to be filmed more like a television show then an actual movie but that does not stop some fairly enjoyable action sequences, yet these only become common in the latter half. CG becomes present mainly towards the end and looks low-key but nonetheless workable.

Beyond the makings of a possible girl-on-girl scene, there is no nudity or sexual content present. Language is tame and infrequent while violence is frequent throughout the film without ever being gory or bloody.

There is no doubt that The King of Fighters is a missed opportunity. With some obvious reworking to the script and story, and a better budget, the film could easily have been a more commendable entry for video game-to-cinema adaptations. What really needed to happen was the fleshing out of the characters and the overall narrative to create a more cohesive product. That said the story, actors, and some decent action scenes, are adequate enough to carry The King of Fighters to its conclusion and miss a definitive K.O.

(Credit IMDb) Live-action feature based on the video game "King of Fighters".

The King of Fighters was shredded of all it's dignity as soon as it entered post-production in my opinion. It was doomed to fail from the start. Despite what you may think, it features some promising talent, but it's certainly not displayed here in any way. The fight scenes feel cartoonish, the production values feel cheap, and I felt like I was watching a boring video-game that had no pride in itself. It doesn't help that most of the characters are corny and unlikable. Maggie Q is the only thing watchable about this movie. What hurts this movie the most though, is the cheesy storyline. I didn't find it to be believable what-so-ever, nor did it provide any entertainment value.

Performances. Maggie Q is decent as the lead, and manages to come out of this crap alive somehow. She is much better then the film deserves, and it shows. Sean Farris has promise as an actor, but here his arrogance is his downfall. Unlike Forever Strong where he balanced it with charisma, that is nowhere to be seen here. Will Yun Lee has intensity but that's about it. Ray Park is much too comical and OTT to be effective. He basically threw it away to ham it up like a buffoon as the villain. David Leitch is OK as the agent but nothing more. Francoise Yip is pretty bland in her role, spurting some atrocious dialogue.

Bottom line. This deserves its bad reputation. You are wasting 90 minutes of your life that you could easily be doing something with, much more worthwhile. People call Street Fighter bad? At least it knew it was, and managed to make the movie fun. This has none of that. Avoid in every way possible.

2/10

I've just watched recently & I must say The King Of Fighters movie is a pile of junk, it's not even the miscast problem but the whole thing in this movie is extremely mediocre. & this is the worst movie I've ever seen in 2010, thank God I didn't have any expectation at all on this because I knew it... OK, from my point of view why the whole thing is mediocre is from the story itself were inarticulate & slight over from the game(Sigh, video games adaptation), the setting isn't appealing & clearly out of the budget, special effects are way too flashy & completely stupid looking, little fight scenes & yet too short, & the most bugged me is the miscast of the characters. Here's my opinion:

Mai Shiranui: Maggie Q ruined the character a lot. Nothing look alike from Mai which got a trademark sexy bouncing boobs, yet she didn't have any Japanese style at all. In here she's depicted to be carefree & serious, not funny like in the game. The fighting style were inartistic & she didn't feel like a good fighter. Mai as main character is fail, totally fail.

Kyo Kusanagi: Sean Faris really destroyed the character with his inappropriate looks which is Caucasian ! Here his role is inarticulate, he didn't have his Kusanagi flame trademark, he's incredibly weak to be a fighter, & his fighting style is pathetic. Funny thing, his young version is Asian in here. Gordon Chan... This is a big mistake of what you've done to Kyo Kusanagi.

Iori Yagami: Even though Will Yun Lee is Asian he's not suitable to be Iori Yagami, yet, stupid hair cut that he had. Here he act like a rich man & charismatic, his personality is serious & good. Unfortunately in the game he's a violent person. Actually, I kinda like his character if he's not Iori in here. The fighting style is pathetic like Kyo but skillful than Kyo, his special effects are way too flashy & why blue? The reason why I want to watch this movie, is because of my curiosity on Iori turning to Orochi Iori. & Honestly only this thing that cheered me when watching this flick, unfortunately I hate the story why he got the Orochi blood. Too bad, Iori is also my favorite character.

Terry Bogard: Not again, one of my favorite character... Another failed attempt for him, especially making him as an CIA agent, again besides not resembles to Terry. David Leitch really annoyed me, & horrible acting that he played. Plain stupid & totally fail for him.

Rugal Bernstein: Ray Park as Rugal? Thank you Gordon Chan for messing the KOF film & turned down the fans... Rugal here is just another big failure like other characters in here. his villain role in here is depicted to be a powerful fighter with crazy & merciless personality, not charismatic like in the game. In here it is shown that he treat the lady horribly even killing Chizuru & the statue that he had is super mediocre... Definitely not Rugal at all.

Chizuru Kagura: Again & again... OK, I'll just say my opinion on her in here. My thought she's boring but since her role isn't big I kinda confused to judge her completely, yet Chizuru wasn't my favorite character so I don't know much about her.

Vice & Mature: I think their character were too resembles like other video games adaptation, being a henchmen for the bad guy. So, they're completely boring IMO.

Saisyu Kusanagi: Hahaha, he's nothing look alike with his son at all... & funny thing he looked like an comedian instead of fighter. The rest... Well, just like other video games adaptation about family relationship in martial arts. & that's boring once again IMO.

That's all that I can say about the characters, & after u read this you'll be noticed that none of the characters in here were resembles like in the game, but that's just my opinion. Lastly if you loved the games so much(KOF fans), this is a big mistake for you to watch it. Even for action lovers this film had a few action scenes, yet it is short & stupid IMO... But that's up to you whether you want it or not, just judge them by yourself.

This is one of the worst martial art movie ever made. It's a mix of wire fu, no sense story, bad fights and soap opera lines that make you cringe. All of the 'fighters' are to thin to last one min. in a tournament and they move so blind, with clumsy techniques, even a train will pass through their so called defense. Dimensions/alternate dimensions is the holly place of bad movies, because you don't need a logical explanation, just some hocus pocus 'magic' hints. Add technology aka computers and phones to this magic world and voila! the other planes are open for fun ! To make matters worse there is no semi/full contact bouts, just the usual shaky camera and telephoned moves even a kid could see from miles away. The worse point, who made me fast forward the rest of the movie, was the introduction of the white 'fighter' aka Sean Faris. Kyo Kusanagi is Japanese, not caucasian and the funny part lurk around the corner. He is Japanese as a kid in flashbacks, but turn full American later one !? In the end it doesn't really matter for the producers, who cast Korean and Chinese in Japanese roles, because they forget the cardinal rules of MA movies. If you don't have a story, make the bouts realistic. If the fighters are bad, make the story interesting. If both the story and fighters are bad, hire a couple of good stunt men.

This is so poorly done that even it makes the other Fighting Game movies look good. Sub-Zero effort in casting, costumes, direction etc. Couldn't even pronounce the character names properly, much less bothered to know the basic/signature abilities of each. Even kids playing with plastic swords put up a better fight sequence. Save your time and life, do not bother with this "movie".

The movie hits you with a bunch of stuff that normal people won't follow. There is a mirror,a shield, a necklace, a sword, and the real sword. These are all related in a story with too much information to follow. But don't worry. You don't have to. The story line is simpler than the complex explanation: Good guys fight bad guys.

People fight in games in an alternate dimension, that is made virtual with ear pieces. It combines magical ancient oriental artifacts with Bluetooth technology. There is also an evil spirit that can be let loose which will make the games real. Maggie Q fights in a short skirt with stockings. She dates a man who was a former champion. But is really not her boyfriend...

While the fighters are having a meeting, a man (Rugal, Ray Park) decides to bring a gun to a fist fight, runs off with the artifacts, and physically goes into that other dimension. The CIA is monitoring the activity. Maggie Q is instructed to go find a man who is in a mental institution, one where all you have to do is go up to the front desk and ask to speak to a patient and they unlock the door for you.

Rugal has taken control of the games and issued a challenge to all the remaining reality fighters, except they don't know they will be fighting with their own lives!

Once he beats up all the fighters, he gets the title "King of Fighters" for what it is worth. (What is that? Like a level 72 in WOW?) At this point, unless Rugal (I would have named Nigel) wins and rules the world, the plot is predictable. Maggie is not much of an old world traditionalist. She likes the "R" word: reason. Sean Faris plays the son of a former fighter (the man in the mental institution). He is into Zen and motorcycle maintenance. (Oh! How did the writers ever come up with that! They should have made him a minor league baseball player and have him use his skills later on, a nice tie-in.)

On the plus side, women fight in short skirts. On the negative side: They needed to add a little humor. The movie had some funny lines except they were delivered in a stiff manner. David Leitch who played investigator Terry Bogard absolutely stank. He had the best lines in the movie and screwed them up. They really needed a funny Bruce Willis. The story line was fine, it could use a few tweaks, but the poor dry dialogue dragged the movie down. If you like girls fighting in short skirts in an alternate reality, try "Sucker Punch."

No sex, no nudity, no f-bombs. Near lesbian scene. Excessive amount of CG style fighting.

It wasn't a terrible movie:

It was terribly cast: Mai has boobs! Maggie Q doesn't, why was she Mai? She is one of my favorite actresses, a very talented martial artist, and I wouldn't normally care about boobs, but the character in the game has double d's and that's her gimmick. It wouldn't have been hard to find someone that looked the part. Rugal isn't some young douche named Ray Park, he's an old white guy with blonde hair and a beard. Richard Norton, who has done many films like this would have been perfect. Terry isn't some old cop, he's supposed to be middle aged and an awesome fighter, Van Damme played a better Guile and that isn't saying much. Ultimately, that had to do with the way that specific character was written and I'll touch on the writing in a moment. Will Yun Lee was great in his role as Iori; they seriously couldn't dye the guys hair red just for this movie though? The three girls that I didn't mention were great in their roles also, including Sean Faris, ha, ha, ha. Sean Faris is white, kyo is Japanese. I guess it sort a didn't work at all. He's also a terrible actor.

Candice Elzinga and Michelle Morris did the casting, please cross your fingers that the two don't ruin another video-game based film.

The movie was poorly written: multi-dimensional fighting tournawhat? This was the first time Rita Augustine and Matthew Ryan Fischer wrote a screenplay, so maybe the producers are really to blame for hiring them.

It was terribly directed too in comparison to something like Mortal Kombat from the 90's. But Gordon Chan's biggest film prior to this was The Medallion so I wasn't expecting much and even still, it's the producer's fault for hiring him.

The cinematography was...you guessed it; terrible. But the film was fun to watch. A lot of times I found myself interested in the terribly contrived shallow plot (meaning: structure, which is often mistaken for story).

The fight scenes were good and that was because Chan has directed several martial arts movies and knows detail in those areas.

Should you see this? Do you like movies with multi-dimensional fighting tournawhatumacallits? Do you like ill begotten story arks with poorly cast people? Just a "b" action movie fan? Than have at it.